Getting dirty and cleaning up: WWL and John Deere lend a helping hand

Volunteers from WWL and John Deere joined forces with Living Land & Waters to clean Turkey Island.

Published: 8/21/2014Author:WWL

“It’s really great to get out and do something like this because it’s the right thing to do—but even better when we can do it together with one of our major customers who has the same mindset on environmental responsibility.”

For the ninth year in a row team members from WWL joined John Deere Supply Management & Logistics to participate in the Quad Cities X-Stream Clean-Up. The Quad Cities comprise five cities straddling the Mississippi River on the Iowa-Illinois border in the US. Living Lands & Waters, an environmental not-for-profit organization founded in 1998, organized the event.

Volunteers were taken by boat to Turkey Island, located where the Rock and Mississippi Rivers come together. Significant flooding earlier this year had left Turkey Island completely submerged. Then, as the waters receded, the trash that had floated in was left behind. Cans, bottles, barrels, tires and a lot of styrofoam were collected and bagged by the volunteer group and taken to be recycled or delivered to proper landfills. Since the flood waters had only recently gone down there was plenty of mud as well.

“It’s really great to get out and do something like this because it’s the right thing to do—but even better when we can do it together with one of our major customers who has the same mindset on environmental responsibility,” says Rich Heintzelman, Executive Vice President and Head of Commercial for WWL Market Performance Area Atlantic West

WWL was also pleased to make a financial donation to Living Lands & Waters, which has grown to become the only “industrial strength” river cleanup organization in the world. Spending up to nine months a year living and traveling on a barge, the Living Lands & Waters' crew hosts river cleanups, watershed conservation initiatives, workshops, tree plantings and other key conservation efforts. Click here to check out their website: www.livinglandsandwaters.org

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